Height: 131 cm, Width: 209 cm including sleeves, Width: 124 cm excluding sleeves
After the Arab conquest of Egypt in 642, the long-standing traditions of Roman and Byzantine dress continued alongside Islamic fashion.
Textiles were made for and used by the widest possible segment of the population of late Roman and Byzantine Egypt. They were made commercially in small workshops and by individual weavers. While most textile decorations were made in large numbers, many must have been individually ordered both for dress and the household.
The construction of the tunic was similar for men, women and children — one piece of cloth was folded over the shoulders and sewn together down the sides. Around the 5th century, tunics begun to be made in two or three pieces, with a horizontal seam in the centre positioned slightly above the waist. A belt, woven, braided, knitted or tablet woven, was worn to hold the folds of the garment in place. The bands and stripes that commonly decorate Coptic tunics are possibly Roman in derivation.
Curator’s Notes
(1) Two shoulder-bands, clavi, with standing haloed figures, floral devices and busts; the large pendant medallions, orbiculi, each contain a half-length figure;
(2) two large roundels below, segmenta, and two on the shoulders, each containing a seated figure in the middle, surrounded by floral ornament partly issuing from four vases;
(3) two large oblong panels on the sleeve, each containing a seated figure within a circle in the middle, and floral ornament and busts to the right and left. Some Greek letters. All these ornaments have borders of floral stems on a white ground, with a polychrome geometrical edging on either side. A small tapestry band, sewn across at the neck, has pairs of birds in circles.
S-spun wool, probably Egyptian.
The tunic is made up from several pieces: seam at the waist, and across the sleeves (the seam down centre front is secondary and probably from the time of discovery). The wrists and sides of each sleeve end in selvedges. The size of the tunic is huge with narrow sleeves. The hem is torn and raw; the side seams are turned in and stitched up (now unpicked); the sleeves are open under the armpit and the sewn tuck around waist has been unpicked. The tunic is stained and decayed in a number of places on the back and missing its two back roundels (only discolouration and stitch marks remain).
670-870 (made)
Construction
Tunics, almost straight, shirt-like dresses, reaching to the knees or somewhat longer, appear to have been in fashion among several groups of citizens in the Roman empire from 100-1000 AD. This type of dress was also adopted by the Egyptians. The construction of the tunic was similar for men, women and children - it was made in one piece which was folded over the shoulders and was sewn together along the sides. Around the fifth century tunics begun to be made in two, or more often three, pieces with a horizontal seam in the centre positioned slightly above the waist. A belt, woven, braided, knitted or tablet woven, was worn to hold the folds of the garment in place. The bands and stripes that commonly decorate Coptic tunics are possibly Roman in derivation. Less certain is the origin of the decorated squares, circles and ovals that are an equally common features of Coptic tunic ornamentation. On tunics, the ornaments were often positioned to lie above the shoulders and in front of the knees of the wearer, vulnerable points, susceptible to disease and crippling injuries. One suggestion is that the positioning of these ornaments originated in a widespread belief that glances from the eyes of certain people could cause harm. Defenses against the evil eye are of several types: designs that are in the form of an eye, or designs of such fascination or complexity that they trap the eye, or gestures such as an upraised hand. All are found in Coptic ornamentation.
Use
Tunics were woven from sleeve to sleeve in one piece with integral tapestry-woven ornaments (see T.7-1947), but from around the fifth century tunics were also made in two, or more often three, pieces with a horizontal seam in the centre positioned slightly above the waist, and from at least the Arab conquest (AD 639-642) there was a gradual decline in integral ornaments. This one has been made up from several pieces stitched together. All the tapestry woven decorations are applied, and on the sleeves, it is even cut and tucked into the seam, turning the straight woven sleeves of ‘Coptic’ style into shaped and narrowly fitted sleeves of the Arabic fashion.
One tunic, usually very simple, was worn as an undergarment; another, decorated with ornaments and usually wider, was worn over it. In the 3rd century the custom of burying the dead fully clothed and wrapped in multiple layers of fabrics began. Although found in graves, only a small number of tunics were actually made as funerary clothing and shrouds. Much of the clothing of the corpses was not new, and all the padding and wrapping were done with discarded and otherwise available textiles. There are also examples of tunics in graves that have never been made up, maybe suggesting a sudden death or a wish to dress the dead in new clothing, it not being deemed important to finish the garment. It is also evident that re-use was practised. A new tunic might be used as background for old, well-liked and costly decorations of which this tunic might be an example.
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